Man arrested in killing of missing mom whose body was found in S.C.

A man who met a missing mother online about a week before she disappeared was arrested Thursday in her killing, the Laurens County, S.C., Sheriff's Office said.

The body of Myranda Whisenant Southern, 31, who grew up in Central Florida, was found Aug. 23 in a field by a man mowing the grass, Laurens sheriff's Lt. Judy Stiles said.

Darrell Ervin Raines Jr., 33, of Greenville, S.C., was being held late Thursday at the Laurens County Jail.

An arrest warrant charging him with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime was expected to be served Friday. Deputies don't know why Southern was killed, Stiles said.

The Lake Mary High School graduate was shot in the neck, investigators said. It took until Thursday to identify her body using DNA.

Southern, who lived in South Carolina, was last seen Aug. 19 leaving a cable-television company in suburban Greenville where she worked.

Her family grew alarmed when she did not show up in Zellwood Aug. 20 as scheduled to pick up her children, who had spent a week with her mother.

"We are deeply saddened by the murder of Myranda Southern," family lawyer Steve Laurence of Altamonte Springs said. "The family is utterly heartbroken and devastated by this tragic act of violence."

Southern's 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter remain with their grandmother in Zellwood, authorities said.

Friends held a vigil for Southern Saturday at Cranes Roost Park in Altamonte Springs in the hope that she would be found alive.

Anyone with information about the shooting can call Laurens County Crime Stoppers at 864-682-7463.